The film is set in the fictional town of Dante’s Peak where the inhabitants fight to survive a volcanic eruption from a long dormant stratovolcano that has suddenly woken up. Despite mostly negative reviews, it was a box office success and has since gained a cult following among disaster film aficionados. (wiki)
A History of Violence is a 2005 American action-thriller film directed by David Cronenberg. It is an adaptation of the 1997 graphic novel of the same title by John Wagner and Vince Locke. The film stars Viggo Mortensen as the owner of a small-town diner who is thrust into the spotlight after confronting two robbers in self-defense, thus changing the lives of him and his family forever. (wiki)
‘Malignant, is camp horror at its finest, a leaky cauldron of influences that mix into a wild third act as gory as it is unpredictable. From its murder mystery to its flickering neons to its wide-eyed, fragile protagonist, Malignant is first-and-foremost an ode to Italian giallo.’ strangeharbors-review
spacetime coordinates: Michigan 1999 just before the 2YK end of the world
Relaxer is a 2018 American comedy film written and directed by Joel Potrykus. Set in 1999, it tells the story of a man playing Pac-Man in a living room.
Have to thank Felix from Mabento for suggesting this one yr ago, which I ignored, and only now managed to watch. Potrykus also directed one of the all-time favorites – The Alchemist Cookbook (2015) based on David Henry Thoreau stint of living near Walden building around themes as slackness and loneliness. The cinematography of Potrykyus I find one of the most interesting developments of indie low-budget US cinema in recent years, that combines brash oddity, a certain perpetual quest element maybe even picaresque one (akin to 1975 Barry Lyndon) with a heavy dose of grossness, a new sincerity about meltdown and a freshly non-neurotypical candor dressed in black comedy garments. It endorses an unprepossessing (unstudied?) unpretentious braindead attitude about the world we leave in – maybe a jackass type of “critical stupidity” (Scott Richmond) that unites the avant-garde techniques of disturbance with online stunts & pranksterisms. I would also include Kajillionaire directed by Miranda July there. Altough completly stuck the main protagonist oozes forth some continuous fount of animal magnetism & obnoxious liquids.
Relaxer could well be the ode to the gamer martyr, a supernatural 1990s Midwestern take on Bunuel’s The Exterminating Angel, it also pitilessly transforms and ridicules all stereotypes of survivalist preppers, or what it takes to pull trough various challenges, endless gamification challenges and severe isolation without directly decrying the situation or pointing fingers. Relaxer is a new Millennial species, he is not just a couch potato, or the staycation victim of the year of quarantine, he is almost a life long slacker that always strives to reclaim his time back (like C Mudede sugested in a recent article) instead of joining the labour force or finally starting to be able to pay his rent or move out of his mom’s flat. It is also a generation that did not join the startup Californian culture, and that also became its complete antithesis, a sort of ungainly anti- entrepreneurs of slackerdom. This typology is usually vilified in movies – starting with the serial killer stereotype till the white trash family in What’s Eating Gilbert Grape (1993). Survival here is not preparing against the government trying to take my gun, it might mean (here) finishing playing the n (impossible) level of Pac- Man, riding the glitch or managing the infinitesimal reflexes thats sacred cheat sheet scrolls of others promise. Maybe this is also the living catacomb of hardcore music and postpunk mashup with gaming culture (see the numerous Black Flag and Butthole Surfers, grunge posters on the walls). Survivalist logic is decomposing into a bizarre Robinson Crusoe stuck in his home, the archetype self entrepreneur in his (or his bothers) primordial flat, setting up a weirdo freelance business of impossible prize money offered by Nintendo magazine challenges.
This is a mostly fixed camera movie, just with one character entering a progressive state of taped decrepitude and self-neglect, almost sliding into voluntary homelessness, while at the same time retaining some modicum of re-enchantment, of derisory acquired special jedi ‘powers’. These powers are unclear, if they are conveyed by pulp trash or commercial pop, or useless skills allowing you to actual survive the new austerity of a mechanical Turk, that we will never know. What I appreciate is the brake from the redemptive narrative of Matrix, of messianic Neo pulling himself up or making ‘poor’ sheeple understand that we are just an appendix to machines. There is nothing redemptive to this alternate history of the 2YK and why the dotcom world actually ended or why we are its children, always ready to pick up on the next senseless challenge. Stylistically very diverse, Relaxer also features one of these incredible moments – that could be picked out of the best noir memories, with marvelous actress (+singer) Adina Howard starring as nurse Arin, a rare friend and ex colleague that is able to transmit secret knowledge (the cheat sheet scrolls), offering the only rare moments of genuine care. There’s this sequence where Cortez (from the Alchemist Cookbook), her companion standing in the door tries to rush her adding a few homophobic slurs, while she calmly takes the guy apart, completly switching the whole movie into something else related to what’s more and more unacceptable & harder to ignore. Even the Darth Vader 3D glasses – Scanners like Cronenbergian mind tricks find a way to feel all right & appropriate to the dark comic & cloying situation.
Don’t want to give the false impression, this is both an incredibly funny and painful to watchmovie – nothing happens, yet at the same time, here we have a reality desert eremite, ignoring the outside apocalypse as he in more ways than one brings it about. We are never sure if this is just mental games, finding ways to deal with one’s own insignificance or inability to adapt, or just a paen to that have shown us that relaxation never comes easy, that being at home doing basically nothing is still an uphill battle toward relaxation.
The Fear Street Trilogy is an American horror film series, with varying sub-genres of horror. Directed by Leigh Janiak, from scripts and stories she co-wrote with other contributors, the films are based on R. L. Stine‘s book series of the same name.
Fear Street Part Two: 1978 is a 2021 American teen slasher film directed by Leigh Janiak. It is the second installment in the Fear Street trilogy, and a sequel to Part One: 1994. Starring Sadie Sink, Emily Rudd, Ryan Simpkins, McCabe Slye, Ted Sutherland, Gillian Jacobs, Kiana Madeira, Benjamin Flores Jr. and Olivia Scott Welch, the film centers on a group of teenagers in Camp Nightwing who must come together to survive a possessed counselor’s murder spree. imdb
Fear Street Part Three: 1666
Fear Street Part Three: 1666 is a 2021 American supernatural horror film, and the final installment of the Fear Street trilogy after Part One: 1994 and Part Two: 1978. The film follows the origins of Shadyside’s curse in the mid-17th century, Sarah Fier’s witch trial, and the survivors in 1994 who try to put an end to it. imdb
![History Of Violence, A 1997 #[nn]](https://timespacewarps.files.wordpress.com/2021/09/history-of-violence-a-1997-nn.jpg?w=152&h=223 "History Of Violence, A 1997 #[nn]")
Fear Street Part One: 1994 is a 2021 American 
Fear Street Part Two: 1978 is a 2021 American teen slasher film directed by Leigh Janiak. It is the second installment in the Fear Street trilogy, and a sequel to Part One: 1994. Starring 
Fear Street Part Three: 1666 is a 2021 American 
TimeSpace Warps 